Crema treads a new path: Why this award-winning tech company is pivoting to design consultancy

Editor’s note: The opinions expressed in this commentary are the author’s alone. George Brooks is co-founder of Crossroads-headquartered Crema, a finalist for the 2023 Greater Kansas City Chamber of Commerce’s Small Business of the Year and one of Inc. Magazine’s Best Workplaces in 2023.

For nearly 14 years, Crema has been a well-known leader in the heartland for designing and developing custom software. This summer our executive team is announcing a fundamental change in our business focus.

As we’ve always said, if Crema looks the same today as it did three years ago, we’re on our way to becoming obsolete. In order to fulfill our commitment to helping clients seize their greatest opportunities, we need to challenge conventional thinking to find creative, non-obvious, and ambitious solutions.

After many months of conversation, research, and closely tracking macro business trends, Crema is focusing on moving further up the value stream to positively influence the direction of tech initiatives for broadened impact. 

As we’ve started to enter into partnerships with businesses during the earliest stages of digital transformation, we’ve found it to be more than appropriate to provide consultative support and strategic direction with their clients.

Today the stakes are incredibly high for businesses attempting a digital transformation — research suggests that somewhere between 65 to 80 percent of projects flop due to the failed adoption of technology. With the significant investment of time and resources that these projects require, few can afford to see their efforts fall flat.

For leaders working against formidable odds, Crema is their competitive advantage for effectively getting to the root of the problem that their technology seeks to address. We complete the necessary due diligence to validate leaders assumptions and determine whether technology is even the right solution.

Our vice president of strategy, Tyler Hilker said it best:

“If at the start the team’s assumptions are only off by a matter of degrees, six months down the road the project will be completely off target. The type of strategy work we do is concerned with solving the right problem in the first place to avoid re-work or outright failure.”

To reflect the significant milestone in our evolution, we’ve updated our official company description from digital product agency to design consultancy:

The newly adopted name isn’t a surface-level adjustment; it represents a fundamental shift in our approach to work. All of Crema’s product experts are being trained to have a broader understanding of the business and user in order to approach the work even more strategically. 

While we’ve had a dedicated “strategy team” for years, the company-wide renewed focus is helping deliver exceptional outcomes for clients with highly complex or rapidly changing circumstances. We’ve seen early wins and big payoffs with clients already.

Crema partners with forward-thinking brands like Adidas, JE Dunn, H&R Block, and Lockton to explore potential new business opportunities and create products or service offerings using design-thinking as a strategic roadmap. 

Learn more about our work and our company’s new direction on the Crema website.

George Brooks is co-founder of Crema, a design consultancy that helps forward-thinking leaders discover, understand, and execute on their greatest opportunities.